Can We Keep Her?

The Binding of Three

There were three people on a cool Autumn day, all preparing to stand in front of their friends and loved ones, and declare their love and commitment to each other. It wasn't typical. No one would argue that it was. It was, however, good and pure. Based on respect, care, and most of all love. Three people that loved each other as deeply as anyone could.

Steve stood in front of the bedroom mirror in your apartment in the Avengers Tower, feeling oddly calm. He had expected nerves. This was a big deal. Especially for the guy who everyone looked at as the beacon of everything moral and virtuous. Never in his life had he expected that one day he would not only be declaring that he was going to spend his life with the man he had always loved. He definitely didn't expect to be doing that at over a century old, and at the same time declaring the same thing to a woman from a whole different New York than the one he grew up in. A woman who was both much younger and yet the same age as him all at once. A woman that he loved completely.

If anyone had told him that when he was a kid, he'd have assumed they were making fun of him and picked a fight with them.

It sounded crazy. By all accounts, the mere idea should be filling him with terror. Instead, he was calm. He was calm despite how Tony was rushing around him ordering people around. This was exactly what he wanted. This was how it should be. He straightened his tie and smiled.

"You ready to go, Cap?" Tony asked. "Happy's waiting for us at the car."

Steve nodded. "I've never been more ready for anything."

Bucky was a bundle of nerves, fumbling with his tie in a suite at the Plaza. The three of you had done away with the whole 'not seeing the bride on the morning of the wedding' due to the simple fact that Steve and Bucky slept better when all of you were together than they did alone. You had instead woken up and gone your separate ways before breakfast. Sam had taken Bucky, Clint, and Natasha to get ready together in the hotel room that your honeymoon was going to start in.

Bucky couldn't get his metal fingers to grip the fabric on his tie properly. He took a deep breath, trying to keep calm, and Sam stepped over and took over for him.

"How're ya holding up there?" he asked as he looped the fabric around and in and out to form the Windsor knot.

Bucky patted his chest. "Nervous."

"About which bit?" Sam asked, straightening the knot and picking up Bucky's jacket and helping him into it.

"The being in front of everyone," Bucky said.

Sam laughed and shook his head. "You're like the scariest dude I know. Plus you stand up in front of crowds all the time."

"Yeah I know, but Steve does all the takin'," Bucky explained.

"You love them right?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, of course."

"And you want to spend your life with them?"